A win for ÍVP and a victory for the Greens in Europe

As the last votes are cast across Europe, exit polls in Austria suggest that the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) has come out top in the 2014 European elections.

The initial extrapolations as they stand put ÖVP with 27.1% and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) in second place with 23.8%, although both parties dropped percentage points since the last European election.

But the biggest gains were made by the Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Greens, who have both gained new seats in the European Parliament.

Led by Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPÖ gained around 7.4 percentage points, leaving them on 20.1% of the total vote. Meanwhile the Greens have seen the best ever result at a Federal level, up 4.6% since 2009 and leaving them with 14.6%.

The Green result was described by their Salzburg leader as "far better than predicted" and one that they hope will be a trend across Europe. Also celebrating are the liberal NEOS, who in their first European election gained around 8% of the votes, which will likely give them one seat at a European level.

Parties that made losses include the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), who lost their European Parliament seat when they fell over 4% to just 0.5% of the vote.

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